Polish Comfort Food

All across the world people are craving comfort food. They're also missing take out and restaurant food as well. In Poland there are eateries that check off those boxes. People are loving it  as familiar dishes and tastes are easing anxiety and tears.

Regular contributor Amelia Neirenburg wrote about this leftover of Poland's Communist regime.They're called milk bars - so called because they were historically vegetarian, and are a strange hybrid of diner and soup kitchen. Despite offering Communist nostalgia and Communist pricing, they are surprisingly hip and now vital. Their prices are low. Five dollars is the most anyone can spend in them and they'd be walking off with a feast. Before the shutdown, diners would order their meals at a window and then carry a tray with their food to the milk bar's  many tables, sort of like a high school cafeteria.Milk bars actually long predate the Communist Era , surprisingly being started by a member of Poland's landed gentry Stanislaw Dluzewski in 1896. They were popular , especially during the Depression when they offered quality, inexpensive meals for the workers and poor. The Communist Era kind of put a damper on them and Poles lost interest as international foods such as McDonald's , Vietnamese dishes and kebabs flooded the cities.

Yet milk bars connected the country with its' troubled past. Food is apolitical and there are almost always good memories associated with it. Recipes are as traditional as they come. Customers can buy zurek, a soup made from fermented rye and bacon and another soup, barszcz, a beet soup served with sour cream or dumplings. There are scores of differently stuffed pierogi like spinach and mushroom along with potato and cheese. Kompot, a warmed fruit drink,  popular with older people is also served. Ms. Neirenberg includes two recipes, one for pierogi Ruskie, a potato and cheese dumpling and barszcz, classic Polish borscht, Both require a lot of ingredients. and are labor intensive but they're worth it. They're also something different that will get the family out of the usual culinary rut. The pierogi dough is a simple one , similar to pasta dough. The filling is a tasty mix of waxy potatoes, onions and quark cheese.If you can't find the last cottage cheese or sour cream can be nicely subbed in. These can be made and frozen along with being boiled or pan fried in butter. The borscht not only has beets but carrots, parsnips and onions too.Garlic and herbs such as marjoram also add flavor. It does need to be strained and then recooked. You could serve it in very large teacups and drink it Polish style. Add a big dollop of sour cream for more flavor.

Milk bars are offering comfort food in a time when it's desperately needed. Poles need pierogies and beet soup to get them through these strange , trying times. Familiar flavors and taste help.